Once Upon a Time: One Little Tear

First Aired December 8th, 2017

In a flashback Gothel/Eloise Gardner (played by Emma Booth) traps Rapunzel (played by Meegan Warner) in a tower when she’s caught stealing in Gothel’s garden. It’s also revealed Rapunzel is Anastasia (played by Yael Yurman) and Drizella’s/Ivy (played by Adelaide Kane) mother.

Ivy visits Lady Tremaine/Victoria (played by Gabrielle Anwar) in jail to force her to reveal where Anastasia’s body is, but Victoria remains silent. Rumpelstiltskin/Gold/Weaver (played by Robert Carlyle) also visits Victoria and he continues to pretend he doesn’t have his memories. But when Victoria offers information about the Guardian he drops the ruse and gets her released, calling her Rapunzel. Victoria visits Cinderella/Jacinda (played by Dania Ramirez) and offers to release custody of Lucy (played by Allison Fernandez).

In Flashbacks Rapunzel cuts off her long hair and uses it as a rope to escape the tower. She follows a trail of floating lanterns lit by her daughters and finds her way back to her family, but is devastated when she learns her husband remarried and a stepfather to Cinderella. She attempts to bond with her daughters but Drizella is notably more distant than Anastasia.  When her husband Marcus (played by Matty Finochio) remains committed to his new wife. Gothel appears and offers a magic mushroom from Wonderland to separate Marcus and his wife Cecelia (played by Cindy Luna), but Rapunzel refuses.

Things were off to a slow start in the beginning of the season but things are picking up fast. There are plenty of villains in the story and while Once has kept it’s long tradition of several characters being related to villains, it feels somewhat new with a rebooted cast. Besides now that so many characters have broken free of the curse the present storylines are so much more exciting, particularly with everyone’s favorite Dark One back to his old ways.

This episode was also a reminder of how the show likes to play with the backstories of fairytale characters and blending Rapunzel and Lady Tremaine was a shocking twist. It’s always fun when the person who’s supposed to be the hero turns out to be the villain. It turns out Lady Tremaine favored Anastasia because Drizella grew distant from her; it’s understandable although a well-adjusted mother would have worked to fix her relationship with her daughter.

Weaver helps Victoria get what she needs to wake Anastasia, he questions why she seems to care more for one daughter than the other. In another flashback Rapunzel is furious when Drizella refers to her stepmother as ‘mother’ and poisons Cecelia with the mushroom. Sometime later while the girls are making a snowman Cinderella and Anastasia fall through a frozen lake; Marcus is only able to save Cinderella.

Gothel preserves Anastasia and reprimands Rapunzel for giving into temptation to harm an innocent and concludes she can’t be the Guardian. When Gothel attempts to trap Anastasia in the tower Rapunzel manages to trap Gothel instead. In the present Gothel tells Weaver that to wake Anastasia, Victoria has to destroy someone’s belief; Lucy’s. Victoria finds Lucy and shows her the storybook and claims everything in it is true and shows her a comatose Anastasia in the hospital. She also shows Lucy a video of Jacinda kissing Jack/Nick (played by Nathan Parsons), Lucy’s ‘curse’ father and says her mother doesn’t care for Henry (played by Andrew J. West) to break Lucy’s belief.

When the man who chose magic over his son is chastising you as a bad parent you should take a step back and examine your parenting style. Rapunzel’s story is the reverse of a family drama, instead of finding peace and happiness the mother gives in to her insecurities and inadvertently tears her family apart. This Guardian keeps getting mentioned on the show and whoever he/she is it’s clear they are going to be essential to the narrative. Hopefully it’s not another Author type story that ultimately drives the story quality down. I know Lucy is only a kid but I thought she’d be smarter than to voluntarily go with Victoria knowing she’s Lady Tremaine, especially after she admits it. It was a palpable moment though when you could see in Lucy’s eyes the belief of a happy ending for her family fading away. Once often deals with people finding their belief it’s quite a contrast when you see the other end of the spectrum.

After Victoria encourages Lucy to let her belief go one of Lucy’s tears lands on the storybook and Victoria collects it. A despondent Lucy returns home to her mother while Victorai uses the tear and a kiss to awaken Anastasia. When Anastasia awakens it causes Lucy to collapse, and while Victoria joyously reunites with Anastasia, a heartbroken Drizella looks on and leaves. There’s mixed emotions about Victoria being reunited with Anastasia, the villain got what she wanted but Anastasia is an innocent person so you can’t help but feel good. But as we head into the midseason finale I remember this is how the first season ended; Henry succumbing to a poison dessert and that trauma helped bring his mother’s memories back. If history is repeating itself (as it often does on this show) it could mean Jacinda wakes up in the finale.

Quotes/Thoughts

“Next time you want to tail someone, learn how to do it better first.”

Lucy is Gold’s great granddaughter I bet that makes him feel old.

“When it comes to my family, I always find a way.”

Anastasia missed a couple of decades and is now in the world of modern technology, that’s going to be a hell of an adjustment.

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